Today was a fascinating day for me. I wandered a lot and watched as the kids moved around grouping and regrouping at different centers. In general, they created their own centers as they passed through. This was most clear in the car, train, and truck area.

At first only Knox stopped in. He found the blocks stacked in an unusual way and immediately found a way to add a board allowing him to race his car down the now present ramp. This kept him busy for quite a while.

Eventually, Morrie came over started building with the train tracks. Oliver joined him and as they continued, they discovered a train mystery. They couldn’t find a way to add track to one of the overpasses. Boy, did I blow it! I showed them how there was a piece that slides forward for adding track. As soon as I stood up to watch, Ali told me they had been wondering and working on this for a while. They had been problem solving and working together to find the answer. As I said, boy did I blow it! They probably would have figured it out on their own with a bit more time.

As they worked more on the train track, Lisette and Baker joined in. They were mainly interested in the train track and trains while Morrie was starting to find ramps to use within the set-up. Everyone was still working well together, but it was getting a bit crowded.

James came in at the edge of the area and noticed that I had moved a board to make room for the others with the train. He picked it up and leaned it on the writing table creating a ramp for cars – different from Knox’s but still a ramp. He then added a gutter drain from the opposite side essentially creating an x with the board and the ramp. He took turns putting the cars down first the board and then the drain. Morrie was trying to leave and when James moved one of the ramps, Morrie said it was too crowded to keep working.

The fascinating part for me was that this process went on from 10:15 to 10:55! No arguments that needed adult interference. At one point everyone was working together and at other times there were two or three groups working in the same space but doing different things.